Shiny, shiny, shiny wings of Leather...

 Following on from my post a couple of weeks ago, I dug out some more Balrogs and demons to paint in a similar manner.

Left is one of my first ever figures, a Ral Partha demon. Right is a recently acquired Heritage mini, who looks particularly nasty.

Both Heritage I think. Left hand chap

 has definite Maurice Sendak vibes, I love his slight pigeon toed stance.

I can't do a group shot with the previous demons as they have been summoned to Oakbound Studios to take part in a game at BOYL.

Treebeard at BOYL

I've just finished painting this 80s Citadel Treebeard figure. Not my favourite ent model by any stretch of the imagination, but accurate to the text I think.... clothing of bark and the appearance of not being very 'bendable'.

I'm not sure who sculpted him
(Trish Carden I expect), but the 3 sections of head legs and torso don't fit together brilliantly, leaving a definite straight line rather than following the bark line of the clothing ( if it is clothing). This makes him look more like an automaton than an ent imo, but was no doubt necessary for casting purposes.

Either way he'll join my moot of ents for future games. His first appearance will be at BOYL taking part in a recreation of the 3rd edition Warhammer rulebook battlefield picture where he is visible lurking under some Britains trees.

For the same game, which is being put on by Geoff of Oakbound Studios, I've got a unit of 20 archers, a flock of 5 balrogs and 2 large trolls to paint. Better get cracking!

The Fellowship by Hinchliffe

 Blogger behaving oddly ATM, and only allowing me to post pictures over a week old...so apologies if you've seen this already on my Instagram page @broadsword_miniatures.

I think these were released as a set by Hinchliffe for a short while , but all have individual codes. Old school quirkiness, long arms ( a Peter Gilder trait), Gimli towers above Legolas and one of the hobbits is much smaller than the others. All available now from Broadsword Miniatures individually or £17.50 for the unpainted set . I've also just received my backdrop book from Handiwork Games, which is an excellent product, put to use here.

A COLLOSAL COLLECTION FOR SALE

 or rather the remains of it. Another post without any of my stuff in it I'm afraid, but here's what I've been doing over the last couple of weeks.

On 1st October, I became custodian of the remains of Joe Dever's miniature collection, tasked with selling them to raise funds for Cancer Research UK.

With 2 good friends Geoff and Harry, we travelled up to Nottingham to collect the figures which are currently residing in my garage and on sale on ebay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/malplaquet_miniatures/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Pop over to my selling page and take a look. All items with JD in the title are from Joe's collection and are selling well. Here's a few pics of what is or has been on offer.

An enormous Flintloque army. This is for sale privately if anyone is interested drop me a comment below.

Anti Paladin.

Ral Partha Wind Lord

Citadel archers

Citadel rogues

Mixed dwarves

Essex knights

Essex Poles

Citadel archers

Front rank HYW (rather poignantly, Joe never finished the bases on these).

Minifigs Parthians (I was tempted to buy these myself but resisted). There are 3 units of these.

More Poles

Essex hobilars

Foundry ribaulds

Needless to say I'm thrilled an honoured to be looking after these sales and am hoping we can raise a goodly sum for such a great charity. I've tried to pitch the prices sensibly so they will sell but also generate funds. 

I have to declare that my actions aren't entirely altruistic, and I have acquired some of Joe's very early figures for my own collection, including many from the Thistlewood scenario I'm always banging on about, which I'll show in the near future.

GROND, HAMMER OF THE UNDERWORLD

 The 1984 Minas Tirith project has been bubbling along, but I stalled as I started to paint 60 orcs.... wondering just how I was going to do them. I'm following in the footsteps of Joe Dever, who unfortunately painted his orcs various shades of green, and I really don't like green orcs. Also I was waiting for the Hinchliffe orc moulds to be ready as I thought I might use them rather than Ral Partha figures.

Another factor was the original article shows an amazing model of Grond, the huge battering ram used by the army of Mordor to smash the gates of Minas Tirith... 

Was I going to try and reproduce this model? 20 years ago I'd had a go at replicating it in 15mm

I didn't think that nowadays I had the time or patience to attempt it on a larger scale. The original model didn't seem to be in Joe's collection that was being sold off although I did manage to pick up the beast train that drew it.

So I decided to try and contact Joe's son, Ben. Without much hope admittedly. Happily I managed to make contact with him immediately, and in the course of an email conversation, I asked " do you happen to know what happened to that great big battering ram your Dad made?" He replied "yes, it's in a cupboard in my house.... Would you like it?"!

Needless to say I bit his hand off , and after a 265 mile round trip, I'm now the dazed and very proud owner of this piece of Warhammer history.

Considering this model is probably nearly 40 years old, it's in remarkably good condition. Only a little bit of creasing on the roof tiles and some of the arrow fletchings have come off, which I'll have a go at replacing. 

The wolf head looks slightly fox like, and I have heard tell that it started life as a walking stick handle.

As well as this stunning model, Ben kindly gave me a splendid wizards tower, which needs a bit of repair work, and then produced a box of his dad's figures and asked me to take any I wanted! I'll be showcasing these in a future post.

I'd just like to thank Ben again for generously handing over this model which must have been kicking around his life since he was born and taking time out of his busy schedule to meet up with a slightly fanatical admirer if his father's games and models.

Thanks also to Geoff and Solly Solomon-Sims of Oakbound Studios for company and navigating on the quest to get Grond.

THE RIDERS OF ROHAN

Away from grime and back to shine with my favourite race from The Lord of the Rings, the Riders of 

Rohan.

Although I have reservations about the Peter Jackson films, the Riders were spot on I thought and I have a supply of the GW figures to do in the future. 

For this project however I had to keep to figures available in 1984. The recommended Essex figure is out of production, and I had 20 or so Heritage Riders already ( based loosely on the Bakshi cartoon film). To these I added a pile of Hinchliffe Goths and Sarmatians, added a few Milliput plumes and some green stuff shields I press moulded off a Heritage figure.

I was a bit worried about painting so many horses, but as it turned out they were quite fun to do at the end of the day when I couldn't concentrate on detail. 

I haven't decided which figure to use as Eomer yet, so this Heritage one will stand in for the moment . Theoden is also a Heritage figure and I'm not sure if I like it much. The gold barding is based on the Bakshi cartoon film but for some reason the designer gave the figure an axe instead of his trusty sword Herugrim. I painted Theoden's shield gold, as somewhere in LOTR it states his shield shines like the sun.

( very cleverly designed Herugrim from the film based on a Late Roman spatha for the older king. Eomer and Eowyn's swords were much more Saxon looking ).

Eowyn and Merry are hidden in the ranks and as Eowyn is one of the few people who can kill the Witch King it would seem silly to single her out with a different mounted model. On foot however I had to use this classic Ral Partha Shield Maiden, who armour proclaims her sex in true old school style. I did paint her obviously bare legs as trousers however. Merry is a lovely Ral Partha halfling... some of the best ever made.

Sorry about the appalling photo! I'm very aware of the limitations of my photography, all done with a wonky phone. I really do find it hard to find the time to set up the lovely diorama shots I see on other blogs, so apologies!

I'm now looking at a block of 60 orcs and some Uruk-Hai......

RANGERS OF THE NORTH

 Back to the Minas Tirith'84 project with some more goodies, The Rangers of the North or Dunedain. Again I've used Hinchliffe, Foresters from the fantasy range to be back in production soon. These are old castings with a high lead content which made their bows very bendy and difficult to straighten out.. part of the charm of old figures I guess.

I followed the colour scheme from memory but I think it's right. The only inaccuracy I can see is the silver brooch should be on the other shoulder. They certainly have splendid comb overs, similar to their sculptor Peter Gilder.

Other news . I've finished painting the riders of Rohan, which just need varnishing and the bases painting so hopefully I can show you those soon.

The existing Hinchliffe moulds have been spun and the castings examined, so in a week or so I'll be listing the first figures for sale.

I've been tinkering with some Grimdark British Mythology figures... actually assembling 28mm kits. Something I swore I'd never do, but I've quite enjoyed it. This project will be called Perfidious Albion, and may go in a very different way to my normal shiny figures. More soon..

RANGERS OF ITHILIEN

 Another pleasingly small unit for the defenders of Minas Tirith. 300 Rangers of Ithilien. More Hinchliffe Robin Hood figures. 

For the colours, I had in my head this picture by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt

I generally detest their take on Middle Earth (although I love the cover they did for Black Sabbath's Mob Rules), but the feel of their paintings is naturally very late 70s early 80s , which is the look I want for this project. Any how, I managed to get in the gloves, green fletched arrows and painted the strangely shaped beard on the figures as the mask the rangers wear, which incidentally should cover the lower part of their face, not the eyes as shown in the painting.

AXEMEN OF LOSSARNACH

 Another tiny unit for the defenders.

Hinchliffe once more. From their ancient range I think, but I can't remember what code. Anyway he fits the bill. An exciting day today, as we go up to collect the casting machine and hopefully get a few test spins in. I'll keep you posted.

MUMAKIL

 Probably the most iconic troop type in the besieging army are the Mumakil. Vast elephants bearing howdahs full of Southron warriors.

And I can tell you they have been a right headache from start to finish. The first problem was sourcing the correct elephant figure, available in 1984. Britain's produced 2 African bull elephants. An older less detailed one which is fairly easy to find, and then a charging one in the later 1970s which is quite rare and commands a high price even if broken and missing tusks. I started looking back in 2019 and the first ones I saw the sellers were asking £50. As I needed 3, that was not an option, but I eventually managed to ferret out ones listed as "old plastic elephant" and the like, paying no more than £7 each. 2 were missing tusks, but happily an enterprising eBay seller produces pairs of replica tusks in white metal which slot into the empty sockets. 

All well and good. I then had to build a howdah for each which fitted squarely on the back but still left room for a mahout figure to perch on the neck. The way the elephant's head is tilted back made the ears extend too far down its flanks to fit the howdah on, do I had to remove the heads, pin them tilted forward a fraction, and then milliput some more neck, avoiding making the Mumakil look like a giraffe/elephant hybrid.

a rare WIP shot, you can see the metal tusks here, and milliput neck extension.

The howdahs had to be built and painted separately, so I could paint the elephants body fully. As it turned out, I was very glad I did this. Upon completion of the modelling, I primed the Mumakil in acrylics, (I often use an enamel undercoat), remembering that Britain's plastic can react with enamel paint. Feeling smug I thought I'd better varnish them by hand with a Humbrol acrylic varnish which looked promising when applied, but overnight dried milky, ruining the meticulous layers of drybrushing I had applied. There was nothing for it but to start painting again.

Anyhow,  once to the beasts were finished I was able to glue on the painted howdahs and fill with angry Haradrim. Hinchliffe again. The spearmen are from the fantasy range, the archers from the Renaissance range available from Lancashire Games. The mahouts are good old Minifigs. 

For once Tolkien seems fairly clear about the Haradrim livery.... scarlet black and yellow/gold. Their badge being a black serpent on red field and shields black and yellow. I tried to do a stylised eye on the howdah shields, attempting to make it look like a North African design. The banners and side curtains are made from tomato puree tube and the tusk gilding from adhesive stickers wrapped round.

I'm a good way through painting the Rohirrim and seem to have overcome my aversion to painting horses. I've finished 60 horses and bridles now, and am starting on the riders. 

MORE HARADRIM INFANTRY

 I've completed the Haradrim infantry for the Minas Tirith'84 project. Joe Dever's army lists state 35 figures, but to make 2 equal units I did 36. 

The new chaps have spears and are again Hinchliffe Yonderly Men, soon to be back in production.

And below, with the scimitar armed unit shown previously.